by Ivy Wonders
“But I don’t know how to be there for him without physically being there.” Her eyes were pleading now, as if begging me to give her the answers. “When Harman and I were separated, I didn’t know how to integrate Eli into my new life.”
“We can help you figure it out. You and Harman can learn to communicate better and learn how to be better co-parents.” I didn’t want her to think I was only saying this because I wanted to be with Harman. I did want to be with him, but I also wanted Eli to have two happy, attentive parents. “Even if I’m not in the picture, that’s something you and Harman need to learn how to do.”
Tara nodded her head, and I felt like she was finally listening to what I was saying. She was finally hearing what Harman and I had been trying to tell her all long.
“I think I have some thinking to do,” she said as she started placing all of the wine bottles back on the shelf.
Chapter 29
Harman
All day I’d thought about my call with Rebel from the night before. The more her words sank in, the more I thought she was on to something.
Eli and I sat in our favorite café after I’d picked him up from karate practice. He took a big bite of his burger as I sipped on a strawberry milkshake. Finally, I got up the nerve to ask him something I’d been wanting to speak to him about for a while. “So, about Rebel.”
Gulping down the bite, he stopped me from saying another word. “Dad, I miss her. And I know you do, too. You’re all frowny now. Even worse than you were before you met her. And I’m sad, too, Dad. I want her in my life.”
“Me, too.” But what would Tara think about that? “I’m just afraid your mother won’t be on board with Rebel being around, Little Buddy.”
“Make her get on board, Dad.” He looked at me as if it was a no-brainer. And maybe he was right.
By the time we left, Eli was happy and optimistic that Rebel would be back in our lives shortly. He talked the whole way home about what kinds of things we could all do together—me, him, Tara, and Rebel. I didn’t want to burst his bubble.
Just as I parked in our garage and got out of the car, I heard the sound of another car coming up the drive. When one of the other garage doors opened, I saw Tara’s car pulling in.
Eli and I waited for her to get out and when she did, she had this look on her face that I’d never seen before. I’d seen her determined look, but this was like that but on steroids. She snapped her fingers as she passed us. “Harman, we need to talk. Eli, go up and take a shower. We’ll be up later to tuck you in.”
Eli and I looked at each other, neither of us sure what was going on, but we followed after her. He took off to take a shower, and I followed her to her suite where she pointed at the sofa. “Sit, please.”
Taking a seat, I realized I’d never been in this position with her. “Tara, what’s going on?”
She paced in front of me in silence for a moment. “This isn’t healthy for any of us, Harman,” she finally said. “And I liked—no, loved—my home. I just didn’t know how to make things work with Eli, and I panicked when Rebel came into the picture. I’m sorry for what I’ve put you through, but I think I can make things work. I can come over here more. Like every morning. And even at dinner, too. Right? I can do that, and you can let me.”
“Of course, you can do that.” I’d never stopped her from coming to see her son and never would. I was too surprised by everything else Tara was saying to muster more of a reply.
But she wasn’t done talking, anyway. She stopped pacing to look me in the eyes. “I don’t love you, Harman. I was just confused, and I panicked—I was afraid I was going to be alone forever while you got to live some perfect happy life, and I fixated on my issues with Eli. After working on things with my therapist and speaking to…other people, I realize that now. I am so sorry, and I hope you will be able to forgive me.
“I do care about you and always will, plus we do have a son together. We will need to get along for him. But we don’t have to live together, and we don’t have to live our lives without love in them. And Rebel loves you. She really does. And I think she’s a good person, too. I believe her now when she says she’ll never try to take my place with Eli.”
“I do. too.” I couldn’t believe it. I wondered where this change of heart came from—if Tara had gone to Rebel despite me telling her off. I couldn’t be mad at that, as it seemed Rebel had gotten through to her. For once in my life, Tara and I were on the same page. “And as I told you before, I don’t love you either. But I do care about you and want you to be the mother to our son that you need to be. I won’t stand in your way either, and I’ll help you however I can.”
“Rebel said that, too.” She fisted her hands at her sides. “And Harman, I want you to treat me like an adult. I’m Eli’s parent just as you are. I know you see me as that same dumb kid I was when we had to get married, but I’m grown now. Or I’m trying to grow. And it might take some time to get to the place you are, but I will get there.”
That accusation caught me off guard, but I couldn’t argue it. “I think you’re right. And I think we still need therapy, Tara. You and I need to learn how to grow as Eli’s parents. We’ve made a lot of mistakes, but I think we can do better going forward. We can help Eli cope with anything, and we don’t have to be together to do that,” I took a deep breath, finally believing those words. “So, what are we going to do next?”
“I’m taking my house off the market and moving back in to my place. But things are going to be different, okay?” She was so happy she was glowing. “I’m going to make up a bedroom for Eli there. I want him to feel as at home there as he feels here. But I’ll still come over like I said—for most breakfasts and dinners. Only I’ll have him every other weekend at my place. But I will see my son every single day that I possibly can.”
“You don’t know how happy that makes me. And it’s going to make Eli incredibly happy.” And that’s all either of us had ever wanted.
“He can have all of us,” she said with a smile and a twinkle in her eye.
“We can have it all,” I agreed. “And I can’t wait to tell Rebel the great news.”
Chapter 30
Rebel
Christmas morning, one year later…
“Santa came!” Eli shouted as he ran in front of us to the Christmas Tree Room. The first hint of Santa’s visit was the now-empty plate of cookies Eli had left out for him on the kitchen table. He pointed at the empty plate. “He ate them all!”
I walked along behind the excited boy, Harman’s arm wrapped loosely around my shoulders. Kissing the side of my head, he whispered, “I can’t wait until he opens that Christmas card we gave him.”
“Me, too.” Harman and I had quite the surprise for Eli.
He threw open the door to the festive room and there stood Tara and Mark, her boyfriend. “Eli, there you are,” Tara said as she held out her arms. Eli ran right into them, hugging her tight. “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas, Mom.” He let go of her to hug Mark. “Merry Christmas to you, too, Mark.”
“And a Merry Christmas to you, my man,” Mark said.
Tara had met Mark when he came over to install a Jacuzzi tub in the one of her bathrooms—per Eli’s request. The two had hit it off right away, though Tara had needed some wooing as she’d decided to take a hiatus from men for a while. That lasted a whole month before Mark’s natural charm wore her down and the two became inseparable.
“Can I open presents now?” Eli asked his father.
“You can. Get to it, Little Buddy,” Harman said. Watching his son, he took my hand in his and pulled it up to his lips, kissing the wedding band on my finger. He looked at me with glistening eyes. “Our first Christmas as a married couple. It feels different than last year, doesn’t it?”
I nodded, wearing a goofy, ecstatically happy smile on my face. “So different. I can’t believe it’s been six months since we tied the knot.”
Tara laughed. “Me neither. It seems like
just yesterday we were in the backyard, celebrating that joyous occasion.”
Eli took center stage as he opened the present from his mother. “Yes! A rocket launcher! Man, I’ve been needing this, Mom. Thanks.” He ran to give her a hug and kiss then ran right back to the pile of presents. “This one is from Mark.” He pulled the wrapping paper away to find a rocket to go with the launcher. “Oh, yeah!” He ran to Mark, hugging him. “Thanks, Mark. This is the best Christmas ever.”
I hoped he’d keep thinking that after he found the Christmas card his dad and I had slipped into the pile of presents. “That’s from Rebel and me, Eli,” Harman pointed it out.
Looking a little confused, Eli opened the envelope and a gift card fell out. “Oops.” He reached down to pick it up, tossing the card on the table nearby. “Thanks for the gift card, guys.”
I looked at Harman with a little disappointment in my eyes. “Um, the card, Harman. He needs to read the card.”
“I know.” Harman pick the card up and handed it to Eli, who’d already moved on to the next present. “Here, Eli. Read what we wrote inside.”
Rolling his eyes, he said, “Is it something sweet that’s gonna make you guys cry? ’Cause I hate when I have to read something that makes you all cry.”
Harman put the card in his son’s hand. “Just read it.”
Eli opened the card and read it out loud, “Merry Christmas, Big Brother.” He looked up at me then at my stomach. “Are you going to have a baby, Rebel? Am I going to be a big brother?” He always was a smart one.
I nodded, and the boy rushed at me, hugging me much tighter than usual. “Are you happy, Eli?”
“Yeah! I’m gonna be a big brother!” He couldn’t fake all that joy I saw in his face when he finally let me go to hug his dad. “Thanks, Dad.”
Tara came to me with teary eyes, hugging me. “Congratulations, Momma.”
“Thank you.” I cried right along with her. “I’ve never been happier.”
“How far along are you, Rebel?” Mark asked.
“Two months.” I knew I had a long way to go. “The morning sickness started a few days ago. That alerted me to the fact I was late, and we took the test. It’s early still, but we thought this was the perfect occasion to spread the good news.”
Mark nodded, then took Tara’s hand. “I’ve been waiting for this day, too.”
Eli, Harman, and I watched as Mark got down on one knee in front of Tara. When he pulled out a diamond ring from his pocket, I couldn’t hold back the onslaught of tears. “Tara Marie Hunter, will you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?” he asked.
“Yes!” she squealed when he slid the ring on her finger, and I could see tears streaming down her face.
“Seems we all have good news this Christmas,” Harman said with a smile on his handsome face.
Eli jumped up and down. “Yes! This is the most amazing Christmas ever!”
Later, after opening all our presents and eating the lavish meal Rene had prepared for us all to enjoy, I lay in bed watching Harman prowl toward me. His eyes moved over my sheet-covered body before slowly pulling it back.
Naked, I lay there on my back as he ran his hand over my stomach. “I can’t believe this, Rebel. I’m getting to have a baby with the love of my life. Can it get any better than this?”
Laughing, I thought about everything we had to look forward to. “I hope you still feel that way when you’ve got to get up every two hours to help feed the baby. And when you get to change those nasty poopy diapers, I hope you still think it can’t get any better than this.”
“Oh, I know what I’m in for.” He kissed my belly. “I’ll love every minute of it.”
When he looked back at me, he had fire in his eyes. Dropping his pajama bottoms, he moved fluidly, covering my body with his as I spread my legs to accept him.
As he pushed his hard cock into me, I moaned with desire. “What you do to me is beyond amazing, Harman Hunter.”
His lips grazed my neck as he moved slowly. “I’m trying to go above and beyond with you, Rebel Hunter.”
Pulling my foot up the back of his leg, I was happy he tried so hard for me. “You’re quite the overachiever.”
His warm breath against my ear made a shiver run through me. His teeth caught my earlobe, biting it, sending another chill through my body. Moving a little faster, he took me even higher, nibbling my neck and making me crazy with desire.
I raked my nails across his back as I arched up to meet his hard thrusts. What had started out slow and easy had become hard and savage. The sound of our hard breathing echoed off the walls of our large bedroom. Then the crescendo came as my body gave in, and his followed right along.
Panting, we lay perfectly still. Then his lips pressed against mine for a moment. When he pulled his mouth away, he gazed deeply, lovingly into my eyes. “You are my gift, Rebel. You always have been.”
Running my hand through his wavy hair, I stared back, knowing without a doubt that our love was made to last a lifetime. “Harman Hunter, you’re my gift, too. I never knew love until I found it in you. And now you’ve made me into a mother. I can’t thank you enough for that.”
“You already were a mother. Eli loves you like one, and you treat him the way a mother would.” He kissed me again. “You’re golden in my eyes, baby. Pure gold. And I’ll cherish you until my last breath.”
“I don’t even want to think about that day, Harman.” I closed my eyes and tried to get the thought of losing him one day out of my mind. “I never want this to end.”
He kissed my lips again, taking my mind off of everything else. Moving inside of me again, he sparked up the flame that always simmered between us. It amazed me how easily that man could take my mind off of anything.
He took me around the moon one more time, then we lay there, panting again. The sound of my cell dinging with a text message had me turning my head to look at the nightstand. “I wonder who’d be texting me at this hour.”
Harman smiled as he leaned up on his arm, resting his head on his palm. “Yeah, I wonder who it could be.”
Picking up the phone, I saw it was from a number I didn’t have stored in my contacts. “It’s some random number.” I put the phone back down. “Probably some sales thingy.”
“Baby, read the message.” He reached across me to pick up the phone.
He’d cooked something up, that was for sure. So I took the phone and opened the message. I had to blink a few times before I let myself believe it. “No way.”
“Seems you got picked, Doctor Hunter.” Harman smiled, then took the phone away from me, putting it back on the nightstand. “And before you go accusing me of favoritism, you need to remember that I took myself off the board that picked the winners. Your essay won fair and square.”
I hadn’t let Harman pay off any of my student loans. I felt like it wasn’t fair if he paid them off for me. But I did enter the contest he’d funded—and apparently I’d won. “Out of five thousand plus entries, my essay was chosen?” I couldn’t believe it.
Leaning in, he kissed me on the forehead. “They chose twenty winners. Seems you made that list. I’m proud of you, Doctor Hunter.”
I had worked hard on that essay, and I felt a swelling of pride. “So I guess if I ever get tired of being a veterinarian, I could become a writer. I must be better than I thought.”
He nodded. “I did read your paper, Rebel. I read all the winning papers. And I’ll be honest with—”
“Uh oh, not too honest, I hope,” I interrupted him. I pushed him to lie back, then cuddled up against him.
He kissed the top of my head. “Out of the twenty papers I read, yours was the best by a longshot.”
“You’re just saying that because you love me.” I kissed his chest then ran my hand up to rest on it.
“No, I’m not. There were no names on the papers. I picked that as the standout essay before the board gave me the names of the winners.” He hugged me tightly. “I’d picked yours without knowing y
ou wrote it. Crazy, huh?”
“It seems you and I just have something special. I’d pick you a hundred times over, Harman.”
We’d all found our happily ever after, and I prayed it would go on for a very long time.
The End
What the Doctor’s Orders Extended Epilogue
Two years later…
Harman
“Catch him, Eli!” I shouted as we raced to stop fifteen-month-old Peyton before he got to the staircase. Someone had accidentally forgotten to babyproof it with the special gate that went there. “You know the renegade that boy is. He’ll try to walk up those stairs, and he’ll end up with a broken neck when he falls.”
Peyton came into the world a bit harder than most, coming in breech and having to be taken by C-section at the last minute when he proved too stubborn to turn around—even with help from the doctor. He had a relentless spirit that had him doing everything months before other babies did. He walked at seven months, making our lives a lot harder before we were prepared for it.
Zipping past me, Rebel beat both of us to grab our son. “Gotchya.” She scooped him up in her arms as he giggled and wiggled to get away. “Harman, can you find that gate and put it up before our little renegade kills himself?”
“On it,” Eli said before I could say a thing. “I think the maid’s still cleaning up there. That’s why it’s off.”
It wasn’t her fault. We weren’t supposed to be back home yet. But we’d cut our vacation to Tahiti by half as long. When we got the call from Mark about his and Tara’s twins coming early, we headed back to Seattle.
Tara’s blood pressure was going through the roof, and her doctor wanted to take the twins earlier than initially planned. Eli wanted to be there when his new baby sisters were born. I felt it worth the early come back for our son to be there when his next two siblings arrived.